Contents

Summary

A FRAT PARTY AND A FLASHBACK TO 12TH CENTURY ITALY — Damon goes with Elena and Bonnie to visit Whitmore College, where Professor Shane is taking over the Occult Studies classes formerly taught by Bonnie’s grandmother. At a fraternity costume party, Damon takes advantage of the wild scene to give Elena a lesson in choosing a victim. Rebekah’s attempt to buy Matt’s forgiveness falls flat, but she is intrigued by unexpected news from Klaus. When Stefan questions Klaus about Connor’s motives, Klaus reveals a long-ago encounter with a powerful group of vampire hunters, but it’s Rebekah who delivers the information that stuns Stefan.

Plot

SPOILERS AHEAD

This episode begins with a flashback to 1100 AD: Five hunters, known as members of The Five with swords stand in a circle around a witch holding a cauldron of fire, she chants a spell and lightning strikes, as she pours out the fire and the fire speeds towards the men, suddenly tattoo's appear upon their bodies. One man, later known as Alexander, raises his sword, embedded with the same symbol seen on Connors stakes.

In the present day, Stefan and Damon are trying to search for any information about "The Five" after being told by Klaus in the previous episode. Damon's cell phone rings, and the Sheriff tells him there were no remains in the hospital explosion - meaning Connor is still alive. Damon tells Stefan he needs to figure it out as he has to take Elena to college.

Stefan is still trying to train Elena in her new found vampire abilities in the woods, and she reveals that Damon is the only person who can help her since Caroline is "too good" and Stefan has his own troubles. At the Grill, Rebekah arrives with keys for Matt, a new truck, however Matt rebuffs her attempt at an apology and walks off. Klaus is then seen smirking at Rebekah, taunting her that she tries too hard. He reveals to Rebekah's shock that the Brotherhood still exists and they have work to do, however she comments she no longer cares before walking away.

Damon, Elena and Bonnie take a trip to college, watching Professor Shane teach a class about witches, however Elena is concerned about whether or not she will follow Stefan and become a "ripper" when she feeds. Damon is unconcerned and tries to tell her to feed properly and find out for herself.

In Mystic Falls, Klaus has Connor chained up inside his mansion and Stefan appears. Connor has told them nothing about what they want to know, just that he can't be compelled. Klaus leads Stefan elsewhere and reveals his history of what he knows about the Brotherhood in order to get Stefan to persuade Rebekah into revealing the information she knows.

In flashbacks to 1114, Klaus narrates about his time in Italy with Elijah and Rebekah, where they crossed paths with the Brotherhood and Alexander. The Five are standing upon a stage in a village, a box in the middle which he unlocks. A man steps out of the box and immediately begins to burn, revealing they are executing vampires and they are teaching humans the dangers of these creatures. It is in this moment, Alexander and Rebekah are seen intimate with each other.

Back inside the Grill, April and Matt share a conversation before Rebekah appears, calling "dibs" on Matt. Stefan shows up and tries to get her to co-operate with him and Klaus' plans by saying he could talk to Matt about giving her a second chance. Damon and Elena are still at Whitmore and Damon spots a girl on campus and tells Elena to feed off her. Elena heads to her and fakes being in her class, then grabs her wrist, compels her and goes to feed until she spots a picture of her on her phone with a little girl, her sister. Elena, feeling guilty, compels her to get back to class. Damon admonishes her and Elena lectures him about his feelings until Bonnie approaches, having talked to Shane about her grandmother and holds up a flyer about a "Murder House Frat Party".

Rebekah arrives at Klaus' mansion and sees Connor chained up, not seeing the tattoo and believing it to be a trick. Klaus, Stefan and Rebekah sit down to eat where she will only continue if Klaus apologizes to her. Klaus soon apologizes and asks Rebekah to tell them what she knows about the Five. Another flashback reveals Alexander telling them they have the "ultimate weapon" to destroy vampires. Back at the dinner table, Klaus says there is one piece missing to the "puzzle", the tattoo, he tells the girl nearby to bring someone in. Jeremy appears and has no choice but to comply.

At Whitmore, Damon, Elena and Bonnie arrive at the party and Elena finds a guy drugging girls, and compels him and feeds. When she finishes, she compels him and tells Damon she wants more.

At the Mansion, Jeremy is drawing Connors tattoo, and Connor tells him about what he knows about the tattoo; he met someone with it years ago who had a strong desire to kill vampires. One day, after losing track of the guy, Connors tattoo just appeared randomly and the more vampires he killed, the more it spread.

Another flashback shows Rebekah and Alexander in bed. He tells her about what he knows of the tattoo: the tattoos are symbols and the sword is the key to reading it. Rebekah notices a dagger meant for a "special type of vampire" on the nightstand and after distracting her, Alexander stabs her in the heart with it, neutralizing her. Klaus in the present then tells Stefan that the Five neutralized all the Originals in their sleep, except the dagger failed to work on Klaus due to his werewolf side. In another flashback, Rebekah wakes up with blood all over the walls and Klaus standing in front of her. Alexander is dead upon the wall, stabbed with his own sword and Klaus lectures her about her stupidity and demands to know what Alexander promised her.

Rebekah tells Stefan in the present day that Alexander said there was a cure for vampirism. Klaus taunts her about her choices of men and Rebekah stands up, knowing that Klaus wants the cure for Elena, and that that is the reason he brought Stefan. She walks out with Klaus telling Stefan he needs to work on her to tell him the location of the tool - the sword.

At Whitmore, Bonnie and Shane talk about witchcraft and he says he can show her a few things. Bonnie later walks out from his office to see Elena dancing around and feeding. She is appalled and when Elena spots her, she walks out, clearly ashamed of herself. In Mystic Falls, Klaus sees Jeremy's sketch and tells him to hurry up, shoving him by the throat against the wall when he says there is no more. Jeremy tells him that is all there is and says it grows when he kills more vampires. Klaus walks out after telling the girl to take Jeremy home and Nate - his hybrid - to keep Connor alive. Nate walks back to the room with Connor chained up and Connor manages to bite him on the ear, revealing his barbel in his mouth, able to pick the lock to his chains.

Elena is outside and wiping blood off her mouth and tells Bonnie she should be here with Stefan, Damon is standing behind her and tells them to hit the road. Bonnie tells him what he's playing at, that Elena is a different person, to which Damon responds she is a vampire, just like him, having fun.

Rebekah arrives at the Boarding House after receiving a message from Stefan. They share a drink and talk about their reasons for wanting the cure. When Stefan reveals he would take the cure to be with Elena, Rebekah tells him the location of the sword. Klaus appears from behind them and she sees the dagger in his hand. Stefan stands in her way of escaping. She demands Klaus to dagger her like the coward he is. She is hurt at Stefan's betrayal and Klaus stabs her in the chest with the dagger, watching her desiccate. Stefan is seen covering Rebekah's body with a blanket and Klaus tells him to compel Jeremy into forgetting everything he heard, and that nobody can know about the cure as he searches for the sword.

Elena and Damon are back in Mystic Falls and Elena apologizes to Damon about what came over her at the party. Stefan arrives and Damon leaves. Elena tells Stefan she learned how to feed today, but she hates feeling that way. She starts crying and Stefan tells her to hold on.

In Klaus' mansion, Nate walks back into where Connor is being held and as he turns his back, Connor, now free from his chains, jumps up and wraps the chains around his neck and proceeds to rip his head off. The tattoo then spreads upon to his shoulder. Shane is later seen reading a book with a picture of the tattoo on his wall when Connor walks in, demanding to know why he sent him there.

Damon tells Elena she should go for the "blond girl" because they are self-absorbed and easily flattered. That was the strategy he used to lure Caroline in Season One.

This episode marks Damon and Elena's fifth road trip.

This is the first fourth episode of the series that Matt appears in. It is the first time both Caroline and Tyler have been absent in a fourth episode of a season. As of this episode, no main character apart from (Elena/Stefan/Damon) have appeared in all the first 4 episodes of a season.

The dinner setting between Stefan, Klaus and Rebekah is identical to the dinner party between Klaus, Damon, Stefan and Elijah in Bringing Out The Dead, including the "uniform" of the "waitresses".

Niklaus mentions to Stefan that the agreement between them to find the cure is like a deal with the Devil.

This episode explains how Finn ended up being daggered for 900 years. Though, surprisingly, it reveals that Finn was not daggered by Klaus himself, but by The Brotherhood of the Five, with Klaus only leaving the dagger in due to his annoyance with his brother.

Deal with the Devil is also a trope. After all, devils always deliver their end of the bargain, but they are quite literal - so take good care use the exact words to express your wish, or it will end very badly indeed.

All the hybrids are just called "Hybrids " until they become plot relevant. Klaus even says: tell the hybrid to bring him (Jeremy) in. If there are just a few precious hybrids, he should know he name of each of them. As soon as we learn a hybrid's name, we know he has became plot relevant.

Cultural References

Damon is keen on snacking on Sorority Girls. Fraternities and Sororities are fraternal organizations for college students in the US, for male and female students respectively. They are single-sex initiatory societies, and kids have to "conquer" the right to belong to those organizations, which are often identified by Greek letters.

Damon claims that Elena needs to learn snatch, eat, erase now more than ever. He tried to teach that to Stefan way back in 1912. Elena was properly horrified.

So there are Five instead of One, but there too many parallels to the Slayers in the Buffy Universe.

Connor was a Potential when he saw the hunter's mark. The mark appeared on his arm after the original hunter died. (A new slayer is "called" when the active Slayer dies). Sometimes the Slayer has no idea what is happening to her until her Watcher finds her and starts training her, but most of the time the potentials were under the training of a watcher in the event they are "called". (Is Professor Shane his watcher?) In Buffy, the Slayers were created, imbued with magic powers, to fight vampires (and all sorts of demons)- so are The Five.

Damon calls Professor Shane "Witch-pedia" - this is a clear reference to the free, collaboratively edited, Internet Encyclopedia called Wikipedia. It is the largest and most popular reference work in the Internet.

Damon refers to Professor Shane's class as Witch-pedia, a way of referring to the wiki pages.

Klaus says making a deal with him is like making a Deal with the Devil - in folklore that is a deal where the person agrees to give up his soul in exchange for something, usually youth, knowledge, wealth or power. Most of the tales are cautionary, and end up bad for the dealer...

Rebekah also made a Deal with The Five - she hoped it would lead her to a cure for vampirism, but all she got was a dagger in the back.............TWICE!!!!!

In the party, a guy is slipping drugs into a girl's drink. Popularly referred to as Roofies , these are drugs that can render the victim unconscious or incapacitated. There are some ways that you an check your drink for Roofies.

Keeping on with the no Satisfaction theme of this season, Bonnie was the Moment Killer when Damon and Elena were having (bloody vampire) fun in the Murder House Party. Later Stefan interrupts their moment of truth in the porch.

Stefan calls Klaus torture chamber his "Red Room of Pain ", a reference to the pop novel, 50 Shades of Grey. It seems that Klaus did not get the reference - maybe because in October 2010, (according to the show's timelime), the book had not yet been published? (The book was print-by-demand in May 2011)

Klaus claims the shackles he uses to hold Connor are from the Inquisition , the systematic procedure used by the Catholic Church to "eradicate heretics". Among those, pursuing mainly Jewish and old religion practitioners. The practice started in the 12th Century, but torture was not officially sanctioned until the 1500s.

Bloody Mary are being served in the Frat Party. It is a drink made with spiced tomato sauce and vodka. It might be named after Queen Mary I of England and her bloody prosecution of protestants.

The church that Rebekah and Alexander chose for their wedding is San Vittore in Brienno, Italy.

Behind the Scenes

This episode had about 3.27 million viewers in the USA, making it the most watched episode in Season Four.

Elena (To Damon) : "I care because I'm still me. I still have the same feelings, Damon. I'm sorry if that spoils your master plan to turn me into a super vampire."

Damon (To Bonnie about Elena) : "She is a different person. She's a vampire. We're a predatory species. We enjoy the hunt, the feed and the kill. When the guilt gets too bad, we switch off our humanity and we revel in it."

Damon (To Bonnie) : "You know what makes me able to drink my fill...and leave someone breathing and not rip their head off like my brother...is that I can revel in it. I can make it fun."

Damon: "He definitely wasn't natural. The guy magically appears just as someone blows up the entire Founders Council, covering the tattoo that Jeremy Gilbert - of all the people in the world - seems to be able to see. Klaus mentioned something about him being one of The Five. And he kamikazes himself with explosives."

Klaus: "We don’t do anything. You can’t be trusted, little sister. You’ll be blabbing this secret to the first boy who calls you pretty. I mean, it’s pathetic, really, isn’t it? How she continues to hand her heart to any man who shows her a hint of affection. You’d think she would have learned by now from the endless cycle of disappointment and deception."

Rebekah: "But I haven’t! Instead I stayed with you and let you leech every moment of happiness from my life! You know, at least I fared better then Finn. Klaus left him daggered because he was tired of his judgement."

Klaus: "No, Finn was a dullard. He was more interesting lying in a box."

Rebekah: "You want the cure for Elena, don’t you? So you can go back to mass producing your hybrids. That’s why you brought Stefan here, because you knew that he’d help you even though he hates your guts! You know what? You can shove your cure."